


Tonight, Tonight

by Benniclark



Series: Original Works - Creative Writing Class [4]
Category: Bandom, Original Work
Genre: Band Fic, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-21 17:31:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8254321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benniclark/pseuds/Benniclark
Summary: He sighs, “You’ve all… You and Jason and Paul, you’ve all been in other bands before.”Hal laughs. “Yeah, but this is all of ours first big tour if that’s what you’re gettin’ at. Just ‘cause you’re barely legal don’t make you special. We ain’t that old.”“But my voice-““Is still changing, yeah. We don’t care. Our fans sure as hell don’t.”





	

The last note faded out and the stage lights darkened along with it. This wasn’t where he wanted to be right now. He wanted to disappear into the floor.

The encore was over, the house lights were coming up, and he still hadn’t found the strength to drag himself and his shaking legs and heaving chest to the wings. His name crackled through his earpiece, a call from security to get off the stage, but he still couldn’t even turn his head to the side. Their first headlining show, and his voice had cracked during the last chorus of the encore.

He finally forced himself to the side of the stage, and was quickly, unseeingly, hustled to the bus. Their bus. It still hadn’t really set in. He remembers a snippet of asking about a shower, but was told that they had to leave the current venue right away so that they could make it to the next before noon the next day. He ignores the congratulations and offers of drinks from the rest of his band. They don’t even realize what is eating at his brain and heart. That missed note that feels like a black hole sucking at the middle of his chest. He smiles weakly at them and cites exhaustion as an excuse to go and collapse in his bunk.

The next morning he sits on the steps of the bus flexing his toes against the asphalt of an anonymous back parking lot. His bassist, Hal, flops onto the step next to him, a beer in hand.

“What’s eatin’ ya kid?” The words aren’t slurred, but it is a near thing, and he looks pointedly at the drink.

“Why are you drinking at eleven in the morning?”

“That’s not an answer.”

He sighs, “You’ve all… You and Jason and Paul, you’ve all been in other bands before.”

Hal laughs. “Yeah, but this is all of ours first big tour if that’s what you’re gettin’ at. Just ‘cause you’re barely legal don’t make you special. We ain’t that old.”

“But my voice-“

“Is still changing, yeah. We don’t care. Our fans sure as hell don’t.”

“I guess.” He pushed himself to standing and slipped his feet into his nearby sandals. “I think I’m going to look around, maybe say hi to some fans.”

Hal raised his bottle in a salute, but pauses as he’s bringing it back down.

“You should take some security with you, or at least tell ‘em where you’re going. You didn’t see the fans after the show last night, some were getting a little creepy ‘n’ crazy.”

He waves Hal off. “It’s fine. I’ll be fine.”

When he shows up for sound check he looks shaken, and their head security guy looks irritated. He brushes it off though. Just a creepy dude, he tells Paul. Kept following me around even after I’d signed a poster for him, but it really wasn’t that bad, he tells Jason.

The show goes off without a hitch. His voice doesn’t break, and he’s feeling confident enough to signal to the band that he wants to do the cover they’ve been practicing, but not seriously thought about including in the set list.

“We’ve got a special one for you.” He grins out at the crowd, though he can’t actually see them through the green and yellow spotlights flashing and refocusing. “This is a song by a band called the Smashing Pumpkins, it is entitled Tonight, Tonight.”

Just as he reaches the first line of the second verse, "and you know you're never sure", a bang louder than the music rings through the packed auditorium. The music screeches to an abrupt halt as the young singer collapses, red blossoming across the front of his starched, white stage shirt. The crowd immediately seems louder, the lack of music combining with their panic. They part in the middle, crushing towards the walls to get away from a single man standing still in the middle of the melee, gun raised.

Security splits in two; half rushing towards the man who has not moved, the other half trying to get to the band huddling around their singer, trying to help him. In the still odd lighting above him, the singer can see their head security guy alternating between yelling a code into his radio, and simply screaming that the medical team needs to “hurry the fuck up godammit.”

After a couple seconds of this, he crouches down next to the singer and lightly smacks his cheek.

“Mark! Hey buddy, hey stay with me here!”

Mark blinks a few times and shakes his head a little.

“’m fine guys, gotta finish th’ show.”

He tries to sit up quickly. A stabbing pain radiates through his already aching chest. The lights go dark.

**Author's Note:**

> I got extra credit on this because the Smashing Pumpkins were my professor's favorite band.


End file.
